


#Birthday Challenge - #Book of Shadows

by Kishi (el_o_l)



Series: Corpse Party: Other [1]
Category: Corpse Party (Video Game), Corpse Party: Tortured Souls
Genre: AU where Ayumi doesn't fuck up all the time, Alternate Ending, Book of Shadows setting, CP, Drabble, Gen, blood mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-05 22:11:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14628072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/el_o_l/pseuds/Kishi
Summary: Written for the CPA Birthday challenge: Book of Shadows challenge, the prompt being to change the fate of one character.In order to bring back one of the four they lost in Heavenly Host, Ayumi and Naomi console the Book of Shadows.





	#Birthday Challenge - #Book of Shadows

A chant somewhat resembling wind chimes drifted through Ayumi's mind, and she quickly began to feel a little out of spirit, as if her eyesight had suddenly gone foggy and distorted. Her fingertips tingled with anticipation as she gripped onto her escape. Her saviour; the Book Of Shadows.

It kept trying to lurch out of her grasp, and she didn't know why. This could save her. This could save everyone. She could finally bring them all back. Back to normal. Words couldn't describe how heavy the guilt of the Sachiko Ever After charm was on her, but Ayumi supposed that was expected for somebody who blindly led their friends into a supernatural minefield.

Ayumi was thinking about who to save first when the book finally left her grasp and slammed against the wall of the basement in the Shinozaki estate. In doing so, a black substance with a gas-like structure shot out and began crawling towards Ayumi, swarming her limbs and seeping under her uniform.

"Class rep!" Nakashima called out, before the black mist began clogging up her throat and pinning her limbs down to the point where they almost seemed paralysed.

"Huh? Wait- wha-" Ayumi was cut off by a hoarse, unfamiliar voice.

"Are you worthy?"

Previously, the idea that the voice could be resonating from within the book would have been ridiculous to Ayumi. However, after all that she'd been through recently, she'd uncovered that almost anything concerning the supernatural was possible. And she was dealing with black magic. She couldn't expect it to be reasonable and logical on scientific terms. The voice, however, still sent chills down her spine, which wracked her body with a shiver.

"Yes," she murmured carefully, before choking violently on the black mist. The book flung itself to the other side of the room, and Ayumi was overcome with another wave of dizziness as screams and shouts of terror emerged from the pages, plaguing her skull from all directions. She fell to the floor by instinct, clutching her head.

"Class rep!" Nakashima yelled again, and began rushing to Ayumi's side with gritted teeth before collapsing on the floor - for, she too was trying to block out the suffering that the book sought to bring upon them.

"It's okay," the smaller girl reassured her, trying to open her eyes a fraction. "I can handle this."

And with that, Ayumi forced her grip away from her head and made a dive for the Book of Shadows. It squirmed and writhed in her hands, but she held on as if her life depended on it, knowing full well that this was the only possibility to bringing back her dead friends. If she knew the way to tame a book, this process would likely have been a lot easier for her and Nakashima, but, of course, she did not know, and therefore Ayumi only clutched the book to her chest by intuition.

It was likely only a few minutes, but to the girls it felt like hours before the violent movements of the book gradually subsided. Nakashima watched with worrisome eyes as the dark mist surrounding the book and the two of them began to clear away. With this, Ayumi began reading the contents of the book in order to find the spell that they desired. 

"What is it that you require?" The book spoke clearly and significantly. Ayumi jumped a little, surprised at the unexpected question that the book asked her.

"E-erm, a spell for revival?" she replied cautiously.

Rapidly, the book's pages began flipping over at a speed so fast that Ayumi could not see the individual pages, but a cylindrical blur of paper. And then, as fast as it had begun moving, it stopped at a halt. Ayumi briefly scanned the page to examine its general contents.

"This is it," she discovered.

"This is the spell?" Nakashima checked.

"It must be. It's all in some European language, though."

The book flashed a bright white light, causing both Ayumi and Nakashima to cover their eyes for protection, before returning to its previous state, albeit a slight change.

"It's... it's in Japanese now," Ayumi observed quickly.

"That's... okay. Please be careful with it, class rep."

"I will."

She didn't know where to begin. She didn't even know if this thing worked more than once per person. What if it didn't? The order that she would try to revive her friends would suddenly matter a lot more.

If only one...

She needed somebody who could rationalise the situation. She and the other survivors had been mocked and laughed at by their classmates, cast away as delusional kids that needed mental assistance by teachers. Bringing back another student would be both unfair and irrational. This was a crucial time for thinking.

"Shishido Yui."

Nakashima raised her eyebrows, but said nothing. The pentagram Ayumi had rested the book on began glowing, and, before either of them knew what was happening, it shot up light straight into the air alongside the book. It seemed to suck its surroundings in, and Ayumi, being so close to the pentagram, felt herself drawing closer and closer, until she was once again engulfed in the black magic.

"Wha-" Ayumi's mouth closed abruptly, and she felt her entire body collapse as though she were paralysed. Before blacking out, she thought she saw Nakashima falling soon after herself. 

When Ayumi awoke, she found herself lying on rotten floorboards that were riddled with cracks and holes. Squinting her eyes open, she saw that the walls were in a similar state, and spotted a dirty window in the corner of her eye. She knew immediately where she was, and her heartbeat began to rise.

Tenjin.

Shakily, Ayumi stood up. She didn't feel a presence near her, and so assumed that Nakashima had woken up elsewhere. Rubbing her eyes, she attempted to adjust to her surroundings a little more.

The pentagram was on the floor. Blood-red; it did not shine with light like it did at the Shinozaki Estate, but it was prominent all the same. Ayumi stared at it in exhaustion.

"What now?" She murmured to herself. Was she to go back to the underground tunnels and complete a spell by Sachiko's corpse? Wait - did she need the Book of Shadows? What if she needed to hold onto it?

"No..." Ayumi clutched her head tightly and felt herself running to the door. Before exiting, however, she caught the sound of a click from within the classroom. She thought she was alone. She didn't dare turn around.

"Shinozaki-san?"

The voice caused Ayumi to spin around so abruptly she almost fell over. For a moment, she thought she was hallucinating. There, in front of her by a side door that connected two adjacent classrooms, stood her homeroom teacher.

"Shishido-sensei!" Ayumi wanted to cry with happiness.

"Are you okay?" Shishido-sensei began walking towards her. The spell had worked, in its own little way. Ayumi must have gone bac-

She remembered. The pentagram on the floorboards began to glow.

"SENSEI! To the wall!" Ayumi screamed.

The trapfloor. The trapfloor was going to get them. Shishido-sensei looked at Ayumi with confusion, but Ayumi's expression must have given her an understanding of the urgency, for she began moving quickly towards the southern end of the classroom. Ayumi rushed alongside the edge of the room to meet her, and, to her dismay, realised that the floorboards were already shaking tremendously. And, in her high heels, Shishido-sensei tripped as the northern end of the classroom came off its hinges and swung down.

"No!" Ayumi yelled. Shishido-sensei cried out in surprise. She was halfway over the trapfloor, but, with her broken arm, could not hold on well, and she began to slide down the floor. The pentagram began bleeding, and droplets of blood were dripping from the floor into the abyss. Ayumi grabbed Shishido-sensei and dug her feet into the floor. There was no telling whether the floorboards she was sitting on were strong enough to hold two bodies, but she had no choice. She remembered the door being locked before being opened and panicking for a while with her teacher when this incident had previously occurred, and so knew that Kishinuma wouldn't be arriving in time to save them.

"Shinozaki-san, you'll fall too!" Shishido-sensei urged.

"No arguments! Climb up, please. Just do it!" Arguing was what previously got Shishido-sensei killed - if they had just both climbed up without arguing if Ayumi was leaving or not, Shishido-sensei wouldn't have died.

Ayumi tried to pull the teacher towards the door with all her might. She wasn't getting anywhere with her petite frame and strength, but she was getting Shishido-sensei in a position to climb up.

"Shinozaki!" That was Kishinuma banging on the door. They didn't have much time.

"Shinozaki-san, I reall-"

"I promise you, we have time. Just climb up!" And with that, Ayumi saw her teacher's foot push her body up. She swung her to the side so that, instead of falling back down, Shishido-sensei would fall onto the more stable wooden planks.

After a few more seconds, Ayumi heard Kishinuma break the door in.

"Don't fall in," she gasped, knowing that, with his recklessness, Kishinuma would be stupid enough to run into the room without realising the floor was not present.

"I- what? What is this..?" He murmured. Ayumi wasn't looking. She just laid there, panting for breath. "Yui-sensei?"

"Oh... You're okay too, Kishinuma-kun," Shishido-sensei spoke breathlessly. "Good."

"The hell happened here?"

"The floor fell. It seems Shinozaki-san already knew what to do, though." Ayumi heard Shishido-sensei stand up. "Are you two both okay?"

"I'm fine. Not sure about Shinozaki, though."

Shishido-sensei grabbed Ayumi's hands and pulled her up. Her legs were shaky, and she didn't realise it before, but she was sobbing.

"You kids have have it pretty rough, huh?" Sensei tried to sooth her. Ayumi cried a little harder.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," She said again and again, taking comfort in her teacher's arms.

"It's okay. I shouldn't have left you both. It's my own fault." Shishido-sensei didn't even know, and Ayumi just whined in the crook of her neck.

This was the last person that her and Kishinuma came across before meeting up with the other three. She knew Suzumoto and Morishige had already passed by now, and that it was likely Nakashima was too late to save Shinohara. If she had only picked another person... she could have saved everyone.

But she had saved one. And to Ayumi, one was something. It made her feel a little better, like she was more in control of the tragedy she had spurred at Heavenly Host. Shishido-sensei was an adult: people would be more likely to believe her account over the students'. If there was even a chance that people were to believe her, then at the very least Ayumi's classmates would be served justice through the recognition of their existences.

The spell the Book of Shadows performed was not nearly what Ayumi could have hoped for, but she now treasured its ability greatly and close to her heart.

 

• ● 6 A L I V E ● •

**Author's Note:**

> Written in the past year or two, so hopefully its not as bad as the others. Leave kudos if you enjoyed or give feedback in the comments :)


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